National culture and on-line trust: a study of internet Egyptian users

This research-in-progress investigates cultural issues in e-commerce trust. An experiential survey was conducted with three hundred and seventy Egyptian Internet users, exploring two book-seller web sites. Structure equation modeling analysis suggested that, for the target sample, perceived reputation and perceived familiarity with an Internet store have significant effect on building trust for that store. The paper discusses the importance of these two factors within the Egyptian culture

Maternal Cardiovascular Impairment in Pregnancies Complicated by Severe Fetal Growth Restriction

Abstract—Fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia are both conditions of placental etiology and associated to increased risk for the long-term development of cardiovascular disease in the mother. At presentation, preeclampsia is associated with maternal global diastolic dysfunction, which is determined, at least in part, by increased afterload and myocardial stiffness. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that women with normotensive fetal growth-restricted pregnancies also exhibit global diastolic dysfunction. This was a prospective case-control study conducted over a 3-year period involving 29 preterm fetal growth-restricted pregnancies, 25 preeclamptic with fetal growth restriction pregnancies, and 58 matched control pregnancies. Women were assessed by conventional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging at diagnosis of the complication and followed-up at 12 weeks postpartum. Fetal growth-restricted pregnancies are characterized by a lower cardiac index and higher total vascular resistance index than expected for gestation. Compared with controls, fetal growth-restricted pregnancy was associated with significantly increased prevalence (P�0.001) of asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (28% versus 4%) and widespread impaired myocardial relaxation (59% versus 21%). Unlike preeclampsia, cardiac geometry and intrinsic myocardial contractility were preserved in fetal growth-restricted pregnancy. Fetal growth-restricted pregnancies are characterized by a low output, high resistance circulatory state, as well as a higher prevalence of asymptomatic global diastolic dysfunction and poor cardiac reserve. These findings may explain the increased long-term cardiovascular risk in these women who have had fetal growth-restricted pregnancies. Further studies are needed to clarify the postnatal natural history of cardiac dysfunction in these women

Invertibility in groupoid C*-algebras

Given a second-countable, Hausdorff, \'etale, amenable groupoid G with compact unit space, we show that an element a in C*(G) is invertible if and only if \lambda_x(a) is invertible for every x in the unit space of G, where \lambda_x refers to the "regular representation" of C*(G) on l_2(G_x). We also prove that, for every a in C*(G), there exists some x in G^{(0)} such that ||a|| = ||\lambda_x(a)||.Comment: 8 page

Evaluation of thermally stable phosphor screens for application in laser diode excited high brightness white light modules

A study on the preparation of thermally stable phosphor targets based on yttrium aluminum garnet doped with cerium (YAG:Ce) when excited by a high power laser diode is described. The luminous flux, chromaticity and radial spectral flux of the targets along with their thermal stability have been determined when exposed to laser powers of up to 5000 mW. This report presents successful high brightness light sources with adjustable emission properties achieved by utilizing thermally stable phosphor targets excited by high power laser diodes.Brunel University London, No. EP/K504208/

Diffeomorphic Demons using Normalised Mutual Information, Evaluation on Multi-Modal Brain MR Images

The demons algorithm is a fast non-parametric non-rigid registration method. In recent years great efforts have been made to improve the approach; the state of the art version yields symmetric inverse-consistent large-deformation diffeomorphisms. However, only limited work has explored inter-modal similarity metrics, with no practical evaluation on multi-modality data. We present a diffeomorphic demons implementation using the analytical gradient of Normalised Mutual Information (NMI) in a conjugate gradient optimiser. We report the first qualitative and quantitative assessment of the demons for inter-modal registration. Experiments to spatially normalise real MR images, and to recover simulated deformation fields, demonstrate (i) similar accuracy from NMI-demons and classical demons when the latter may be used, and (ii) similar accuracy for NMI-demons on T1w-T1w and T1w-T2w registration, demonstrating its potential in multi-modal scenarios

The hot and cold interstellar matter of early type galaxies and their radio emission

Over the last few years, the knowledge of the interstellar matter (ISM) of early type galaxies has increased dramatically. Many early type galaxies are now known to have ISM in three different phases: cold (neutral hydrogen (HI), dust and molecular material), warm (ionized) and hot (S-ray emitting) gas. Early type galaxies have smaller masses of cold ISM (10 to the 7th power - 10 to the 8th power solar mass; Jura et al. 1987) than later type spiral galaxies, while they have far more hot gas (10 to the 9th power - 10 to the tenth power solar mass; Forman et al. 1985, Canizares et al. 1987). In order to understand the relationship between the different phases of the ISM and the role of the ISM in fueling radio continuum sources and star formation, researchers compared observational data from a wide range of wavelengths

Discrete element models of soil-geogrid interaction

Geogrids are the geosynthetics of choice for soil reinforcement applications. To evaluate the efficiency of geogrid reinforcement, several methods are used including field tests, laboratory tests and numerical modeling. Field studies consume long period of time and conducting these investigations may become highly expensive because of the need for real-size structures. Laboratory studies present also significant difficulties: large-size testing machines are required to accommodate realistic geogrid designs. The discrete element method (DEM) may be used as a complementary tool to extend physical testing databases at lower cost. Discrete element models do not require complex constitutive formulations and may be fed with particle scale data (size, strength, shape) thus reducing the number offree calibration parameters. Discrete element models also are well suited to problems in which large displacements are present, such as geogrid pullout. This paper reviews the different approaches followed to model soil-geogrid interaction in DEM and presents preliminary results from pull-out conditions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

SCREENING FOR HEPATITIS C Response from Hepatitis C Trust, BASL, BIA, BVHG, BSG, and BHIVA to article asking whether widespread screening for hepatitis C is justified

This is the peer reviewed published version of the following article: Response from Hepatitis C Trust, BASL, BIA, BVHG, BSG, and BHIVA to article asking whether widespread screening for hepatitis C is justified, which has been published in final form at 10.1136/bmj.h998. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with BMJ's Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0

Seeking the Real Adam Smith and Milton Friedman

In this paper we will analyze the relationship between free market principles and ethics through an exploration of how too many business managers often approach the ideas of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. In doing so, we aim to provide a thoughtful foundation for future discussions of how we ought to navigate this intersection. We briefly examine questions such as: What is the relationship between the “best” economy in terms of efficiency and the common good for society? Is pursuing one’s individual economic advantage the same as promoting the general interest? As we analyze and discuss these questions, specifically in the context of Smith and Friedman, we also make some alternative normative assertions, grounded in social welfare, about adopting a broader societal perspective for the purpose of business

Self-avoiding walks and connective constants

The connective constant $\mu(G)$ of a quasi-transitive graph $G$ is the asymptotic growth rate of the number of self-avoiding walks (SAWs) on $G$ from a given starting vertex. We survey several aspects of the relationship between the connective constant and the underlying graph $G$. $\bullet$ We present upper and lower bounds for $\mu$ in terms of the vertex-degree and girth of a transitive graph. $\bullet$ We discuss the question of whether $\mu\ge\phi$ for transitive cubic graphs (where $\phi$ denotes the golden mean), and we introduce the Fisher transformation for SAWs (that is, the replacement of vertices by triangles). $\bullet$ We present strict inequalities for the connective constants $\mu(G)$ of transitive graphs $G$, as $G$ varies. $\bullet$ As a consequence of the last, the connective constant of a Cayley graph of a finitely generated group decreases strictly when a new relator is added, and increases strictly when a non-trivial group element is declared to be a further generator. $\bullet$ We describe so-called graph height functions within an account of "bridges" for quasi-transitive graphs, and indicate that the bridge constant equals the connective constant when the graph has a unimodular graph height function. $\bullet$ A partial answer is given to the question of the locality of connective constants, based around the existence of unimodular graph height functions. $\bullet$ Examples are presented of Cayley graphs of finitely presented groups that possess graph height functions (that are, in addition, harmonic and unimodular), and that do not. $\bullet$ The review closes with a brief account of the "speed" of SAW.Comment: Accepted version. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1304.721